Tips for Professionals to Improve Communication

One can be an extremely hard working and intelligent worker, but to taste success in the fierce competitive world, one has to be a good and impressive communicator. In corporates; you will not get too many chances to win the confidence of your boss and fellow workers, you have to create a positive impression at the first go itself. Doing your work is important but what is more important is presenting your work well. One has to be very careful about his communication skills to perform well at his workplace and have an edge over his fellow workers.

Here are some tips to improve communication skills for professionals.

1. Understand the second party well. Know more about their thought process, cultural background and educational background for effective communication. The content must be designed keeping the audience in mind. For instance, if you need to address the front line staff, it is always advisable to keep your speech simple for them to understand well. For interacting with top shots don’t adopt a casual approach. Use professional jargons and corporate terminologies in your speech for the “Bang on” effect.

2. Always be very clear what you want to communicate. If you yourself are confused, you will also confuse others. Whatever thought you want to share with others, carefully put it into sensible and relevant words for others to understand clearly. Careful selection of words is very important for an effective communication. If you want to address your team in the conference room near the cafeteria, please do mention the location very clearly. Don’t keep half of your thoughts in mind and expect the others to understand it on their own.

3. The pitch and the tone must also be taken care of. During presentations, seminars or business meetings, your tone must be audible to each and every participant to create the desired impact and for others to look up to you. Make sure that the individual sitting on the last bench is also able to hear you properly for him to give his best. Don’t speak too low or shout.

   Never rush. Speak slowly and clearly what you expect your fellow workers to do. Make your speech interesting. Don’t make long presentations or unnecessarily drag the meeting. During long meetings, monotony creeps in and individuals tend to loose interest. Do include a tea or a snack break.

4. At work places never interact at noisy places, cafeteria, employee’s workstations as noise acts as a hindrance to an effective communication. Prefer a conference room, a board room or a noise free zone for meetings and presentations. The speaker must use whiteboards, markers, pen and paper to highlight the important points.

   The listeners must also carry a notepad and a pen to jot down the important points as well as their queries. The queries must be asked at the end of the presentation. Jumping in between leads to confusions and misunderstandings and disrespect for the speaker.

   The question answer round must be kept at the end of presentations, seminars and meetings. The speaker must invite questions from the audience in the end and the listeners must also solve all their queries before leaving for a better understanding. Don’t feel shy to ask your queries.

5. While sharing any important information, do verify with the recipients whether they have understood or not. While sharing any important contact number, always crosscheck with the recipient to ensure that they have noted it correctly. Don’t dictate your email id in one go. Always break it into words which must be further broken into alphabets. For better clarity alphabets must be related with the word they stand for. For example a as in alpha, b as in beta, t as in tango, c as in Charlie as so on. Share your business cards than verbally dictating your details as chances of errors get reduced.

6. Don’t always depend on verbal communication. After any meeting, make it a habit to send the minutes of the meeting through mail marking a cc to all the participants for everyone to recall what happened in the meeting.

   Learn the art of writing business mails. Never use stylish fonts or loud colours in business communication. The agenda of the meeting must also be sent well in advance so that the participants come prepared and do not give blank expressions during the meetings.

7. There should be transparency among all the team members and the subordinates must have an easy access to their superiors. The hierarchy should be simple for easy flow of information among the team members. The employee must know whom to contact in case of a query to avoid dilution of the information. Never call any client or any employee when he is about to leave for the day as he would never bother to listen carefully. Also avoid discussing important matters during lunch time as the employee is altogether in a different mood.

8. Also take care of your dressing at work place. Never be shabby and keep your nails clean. Do not wear loud colours to office. Casual dressing is a strict no no at work places. Make sure to carry a planner or an organizer to note down your work against the deadline to avoid forgetting important assignments. In offices, always keep your mobiles in the silent mode as loud ring tones act as a disturbing element and employees find it hard to concentrate at work.

9. The most important of all be yourself and be very confident. Give your best everyday at work and adopt a positive approach. Nervousness and over excitement lead to stammering and ineffective communication. Learn to keep a control on your emotions and be very careful about what you say and how you say? Communicate effectively at work place to be successful.